daozhangs | ic inbox, ryslig.

( one thing xingchen has come to realize since his arrival is that even in sleep, his werefox is restless. he sleeps a much lighter sleep in the hours before he shifts back to his proper form, awoken by the slightest sound - the notification sound from his laptop, for example. which is good, because he dozed off at midnight and there's no proper reason anyone should be contacting him between then and sunrise unless it's some manner of emergency.

it's jiang wanyin, insisting he make the trip that less than two days past he had insisted was fully unnecessary. something has happened - a 'something' which the message proceeds to describe. hostile creatures. hostile creatures breeding with them? breeding in them? or devouring them from the inside, however that might look. all of which amounts to a night hunt, one which (by the sounds of it) will have them hunting their own kind.

xingchen's lips press to a grim line. )

I'm coming.

( it comes quickly, within half a minute of sending it, though in the pause which follows (a pause in which he intended to decide where to begin his rapid preparations for departure), he catches the blustering sound of the wind against the side of the little house, even this deep in the woods. it had been snowing when he fell asleep. now, he can only assume it's that much worse. and so - )

Should I expect such inclement weather near the lodge? ( just so he knows if his whole trip is going to be like this or just the first segment of it.

and he sets the laptop aside to wait for a reply, dressing quickly in the meantime with attention to layers to combat the elements - only to immediately begin to undress again and stuff all of such layers into a bag, having decided to travel by fox for as long as he's able. )

[ A kinder man would have been alarmed at hearing that the bad weather keeping people locked into the hotel reaches even Xiao Xingchen's home. This doesn't sound like a momentary spell of bad weather which can be easily surmounted, or will pass soon enough on its own. He may originate from warm Yunmeng but he knows enough about cold weather to know how deadly it is.

But more than he is a friend, Jiang Wanyin is a sect leader, one who has lived through a war that always was to end win the complete obliteration of the losing side, and he has not softened his ways since.

Comfort does not factor into such decisions. Even survival factors in only so far as it becomes a variable in his calculations.

And yet, he finds himself smiling, the grimness that reminds him so much of these desperate days of war momentarily chased away by warmth. No doubt, no hesitation. Just I'm coming. ]

The weather is probably worse here, the resort is in the mountains. Some people tried to flee outside. I don't know if they made it, only that none returned yet.

Then however long the journey took you, it should take me the same. I plan to travel by fox as frequently as the footing allows.

( which should make up for a lot of the time lost wading through snow on two legs. at least during the nighttime hours, such legs are longer. that has never seemed quite so advantageous as now. )

I'll have my laptop. Using it in such a form isn't feasible, but I'm able to hear the beeping.

Please update me as frequently as you're able - especially regarding the creatures, any information which might be of use once I arrive. And your own condition, of course.

Should you need my immediate attention, send two in succession. I'll hear it and shift back.

Is there anything else which I need to know before I leave?

Edited 2021-01-14 14:01 (UTC)

I don't know what to tell you. I have nothing yet. As far as I know, we haven't figured out yet how to detect them or how to fight them in an effective manner. The common people here are frightened and distrustful. They are trapped between two kinds of hungry monsters.

All I have to tell you is to brace yourself. And in case we can't speak again before you get here, trust no one.

I'm fine right now. I'm in a safe place. I'm armed. Once I have rested, I will go out there and hunt. I'm doing better than most here.

Trust no one? You've forgotten who you're speaking with.

( he's kidding. it's a joke, albeit perhaps one rooted in truth. if jiang wanyin is safe, armed, and planning to rest, the situation seems quite stable enough at the immediate moment that xingchen could stand to lighten the mood at least this little bit.

but then he's shifting back to business. )

Runyu should be there as well. He has experience in combat, if not night hunts specifically. ( xingchen isn't going to tell him to go find runyu and ally himself, that's for jiang wanyin to decide. he's just arming the man with all the facts which might be of use.

but that's it. all that's left is to pack up his laptop, shed his final clothes, shift, and depart. and while xingchen plans to tell him he's leaving, what comes out instead is - )

Please, be safe.

You know I can't promise you that.

[ He gives the screen a wry but fond smile, the fingers of his left hand going to fiddle with Zidian. He has missed its steadying presence. ]

But I will try my best. And it is good to know he is here as well. Maybe I will have the opportunity to ally with him. It would be good to have someone whose fighting style is at least somewhat familiar, that should make it easier.

[ And with nobody here being someone he truly knows well, someone from his own culture might be his best bet at figuring out if they are acting strangely and thus infected. ]

I hope so.

Until we next speak, then.

( and he's shutting his laptop, pressing it into his bag wrapped amongst his clothing and shedding his robe to shrug the straps of the bag over each bare shoulder. (it's much less work this way, he's noticed, than to try to put it on without proper shoulder mobility or opposable thumbs.) then he shifts and heads for the door.

while he may not stop immediately upon receiving a message, he has no intention of stopping to rest until he does receive one - so however much time passes before their next contact depends entirely on jiang wanyin. )

[ Jiang Cheng does take time to sleep - sleep which comes easily to him simply from years-long experience of forcing himself to sleep no matter how anxious and restless his mind is, old skills which are usually hard to grasp but do take over again when he finds himself in circumstances which send his body and mind back into war mode.

Afterward, he is out and about again, back to the grueling reality of surviving here when hiding is no option for you.

It is nearly noon by the time he is again in a place where he feels safe to take out the laptop. ]

Tell me you are alive.

Those who left the hotel still haven't returned.

( true to his word, he doesn't stop for a single beep - though it does come as a relief that he can, in fact, hear such a sound over the wind. for the last hour or so, he has nursed the vague notion in the back of his mind that it might be too quiet, too muffled. that he might not hear a two-alert succession to indicate urgency, traveling onward unawares for gods-only-know how long.

but he also knows that jiang wanyin likely won't linger idle for long, and so it's about fifteen minutes later that he ducks into a hollow under some low-hanging tree branches, shifting back and quickly pulling his laptop free of the bag to check on the update. a robe is drawn from the bag as well, wrapped around his shoulders to fend off the elements as he listens to the brief message. )

Your concern is appreciated but misplaced. I'm quite capable of surviving a handful of hours unattended.

Perhaps they've managed to leave. If so, this mess is all the better for it. Fewer lives at risk while we contain the situation.

( to anyone else, he may have instead recommended they try to escape the situation as well - but not to jiang wanyin. he stands no chance of convincing the man of leaving before the hunt is finished, nor does he particularly see a pressing need to. just as xingchen can survive unattended in unfavorable weather, jiang wanyin is more than capable of surviving even so unconventional a night hunt. )

Forgive me. I didn't mean to insinuate a lack of skill, or trust in your skill.

[ Is it exceedingly rare for ill-tempered Sandu Shengshou to ask for forgiveness? Well, yes. But this is one instance where it feels not only warranted but necessary. Well-deserved, too. Xiao Xingchen not only deserves it for being a daozhang or a renowned cultivator, he has earned his respect. ]

I hope they have escaped to safety. As long as they could find shelter, they should be safer waiting out the blizzard than staying here.

[ Which means. Things are going downhill at the resort. ]

I know that you didn't. ( but even still, something about the apology - the shedding of a fragment of jiang wanyin's pride, or perhaps the consideration tucked within it - has a warmth blooming quietly in his chest despite the circumstances. )

Is there anything more you can tell me regarding the creatures? Their intent, their behaviors?

Yes! Yes, I have good news. We have discovered an effective way to fight them. Or rather, to kill them. The only way they can actually be killed instead of just being chased off is to burn them alive. They have to be completely burned.

They are also fearful of fire, and burning the host will make them surrender it and flee.

[ It. He has decided he can't afford to think of the hosts as people while they are assimilated. ]

( so they're burning people alive. xingchen isn't fond of that, but he isn't exactly fond of any of this, and that doesn't change the simple fact of what is.

at the very least, the victims aren't entirely condemned. the creatures - parasites, it seems - can be chased from their hosts. that's promising. )

How readily available is fire or the means to create it?

It's a luxurious hotel. There are enough burnable things if you aren't picky.

[ A flamethrower would be nice but he has yet to make that discovery and doesn't have one anyway. ]

( that doesn't mean the have a means by which to ignite a fire (they aren't cultivators anymore, after all), but he also recognizes quite clearly the finite amount of time he has left before he can no longer resist the chattering of teeth which might interfere with his dictation.

so he shifts to - )

You're unharmed?

( shorter this time, before he tucks the bottom half of his face against his knees tucked into the wrap of his robe-shawl. )

[ No, no, it doesn't mean that, or that it is exactly easy to get the fire where the people are, or vice versa. But he's not going to whine and worry Xiao Xingchen more. Not when there is nothing to be done but grit your teeth, accept that this night hunt has less than ideal circumstances and suck it up, just as he would tell his juniors. ]

I have no noteworthy injuries.

( though it may be difficult to believe (given his history of such worrying), xingchen didn't ask to assess the danger jiang wanyin might be facing. in that, he was strictly professional - he wants to know what it is that he's walking into, to understand the accessibility of the only solution they've discovered thus far.

the answer he gets is not as promising as it could've been, but it's enough. xingchen doesn't press it.

it's time to keep moving. )

I should continue on. Please let me know if anything changes.

Make sure you do the same.

[ For which, unlike for his updates, there is no reason other than that he wants to know his friend is doing well. He may have no regrets about asking him to brave the storm but he does care.

And then it's back to braving the ever-increasing chaos in the hotel, for several more hours, until there is a message which simply says ]

Good news: I'm not infected.

That's excellent news.

( the response comes more quickly this time - he has since been forced to brave the elements on foot, the snow in this area a bit too deep to wade through as a four-legged beast. it was a profoundly wise idea to opt for multiple layers of trouser rather than robes. robes would just get caught up in all of the snow, both the hem around his feet and the ends of his sleeves.

but there are currently no trees near which to shelter, so he carries the laptop above the surface of the snow as he travels - at least until their check-in is through. )

Was it under question?

[ The response is suspiciously long in coming for Jiang Cheng having limited time fir this conversation.

It's one he struggles with. Wishes he hadn’t brought it up at all. ]

Yes.

Alright.

( xingchen won't tell him to be more careful. it wouldn't do any good if he did. either jiang wanyin is taking utmost care or he won't be convinced to regardless of what xingchen says.

so instead, it's simpler to accept the information with grace. simpler to take things as they come, but also simpler not to try to form the proper words to explain his entirely rational concern while so much of his mind is already occupied with maintaining a sense of place and direction in the seemingly endless snowscape he treks through.

so he'll stick to business. )

How would I know?

( no, he doesn't think that's quite enough for jiang wanyin to understand what he's asking - so, )

If someone were.

[ Well. So much for evading sharing what exactly he has done, or being pleasantly surprised that he hasn't been questioned on it (which is suspicious in itself, now that he thinks about it. Xiao Xingchen has been conspicuously curt all day long, hasn't he?) ]

You will have to burn them. It is the discovery I mentioned before, the parasites fear fire. They will flee when the fire becomes unbearable to them, though I can't tell if it is fear or pain that makes them abandon the host.

I burned my arm.

I don't think you do it yourself, usually. But I had to be sure.

( to be fair, he hadn't intended to ask what jiang wanyin had done or how his friend had made such a discovery. he'd intended to ask how one first identifies an infected individual, which leads him to ask - )

Only fire? No odd behavior? ( xingchen's only adjacent experience is dealing with those possessed by spirits, and one can almost always tell no matter how much the spirit tries to mimic the life of the body they've chosen. there's something off about them.

the note about jiang wanyin burning his arm is filed away until he's able to give such a thing the concern it deserves. after this parasite mess has been settled, for certain. )

I have been narrowing down the suspects by suspicious behavior, but they are very good and it is difficult when you don't know the people affected, and everyone is acting frightened and irrational.

[ Fortunately, something cultivators are well used to, and when you have dealt for it long enough, you learn to recognize the patterns in people's irrational behavior. Nothing turns a peaceful village into a frightened mob like mortal danger descending on them. ]

Best we can determine, they will try to get you alone for assimilation. Last night was the exception with public ones.

But fire is the only way to tell for sure.

( a long pause - he's considering, but he's also encountered a snow-buried log that he hadn't anticipated so he's working his way over that with an arm full of laptop. then, )

You're alone now

( is jiang wanyin endangering himself further just in the act of ducking away to speak to him? xingchen doesn't like that idea in the slightest. )

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, XIAO.XINGCHEN. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 * XIAO.XINGCHEN has joined 018.07.154.55 <XIAO.XINGCHEN> You have reached Xiao Xingchen. <XIAO.XINGCHEN>** I am often away from my laptop, but I will do my best to answer as soon as I'm able.

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